


Keeping Up Appearances

by JosephineStone



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 18:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19183684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosephineStone/pseuds/JosephineStone
Summary: Everyone has a soulmate, but instead of it making dating easier it only further complicates it. Scorpius is happily in love with Albus, but when Albus’ family finds out they aren’t accepting it. Draco tries to help him understand why knowing who your soulmate is doesn’t make it easier and doesn’t mean you automatically get to be with them.





	Keeping Up Appearances

‘How could anyone choose not to be with their soulmate?’ Scorpius asked right after finding out they existed. ‘That doesn’t make sense. It’s their soulmate!’

He was only eight but sure that he was right about everything. Go to a soulmaker, find your soulmate. No reason for dating or any of the complicated things that go with it. Who argues with magic?

‘Life is more complicated than that,’ Draco answered. ‘Sometimes they die; sometimes they hate you.’

‘You can’t hate your soulmate,’ Scorpius corrected, but he didn’t have answer to the death one. ‘I’d be sad if my soulmate died, but I wouldn’t steal someone else’s. That’s just rude.’

Draco laughed. ‘You’ll understand when you get older.’

Scorpius did not understand once he got older. He only became less forgiving about it over the years. Why question something, when you already _knew_ the answer? His own parents’ divorce only added to it. Even though it would have meant giving up his own existence, he couldn’t understand how his parents could marry each other _knowing_ they weren’t meant for each other.

‘Maybe we were,’ Draco told him, ‘at the time we were.’

‘You don’t get two soulmates,’ Scorpius corrected.

‘It’s not that simple.’

Then they let the subject drop. 

There was never any argument from the Malfoys about Albus and Scorpius’ relationship. Scorpius’ parents knew it was pointless to even try. He’d been in love with the idea of soulmates since he was a child. There was no swaying _Scorpius Malfoy_ away from _his_ soulmate. It would have been impossible no matter who they were, and his parents knew better than to risk a fight that would have them lose their son. 

Of course it would be Albus. It was just Draco’s luck that his only son’s soulmate would be one of Potter’s children. A boy the same age as himself, as well. Potter had three. His youngest was a girl only a couple years behind Scorpius’ at Hogwarts. It could have been her. The Potters, on the other hand, weren’t as accommodating about their children being soulmates. Not that Draco had expected them to me. 

‘You kept me a secret!’ Scorpius screamed at Albus through the Floo. ‘How can you keep your _soulmate_ a secret?’

Draco would have cut off the Floo connection had someone been hiding their relationship with him. Scorpius didn’t. Instead, he waited for an answer. One of the many things that separated his son from him. When he was younger all he saw were the similarities, but as Scorpius grew older it was their differences that shown through. 

‘My parents don’t see things the way we do,’ Albus said. ‘I’m not a fighter, like you. I can’t do this with them. What reason is there really to have them involved in the first place? What the public thinks is too important to them, I knew they wouldn’t understand. They say they do, but they don’t, they can’t!’

Draco snorted at the idea of image being too important to the Gryffindors. But after further thought, Albus could be right. Everyone had an image of themselves they wanted to live up to. High society was not the only image that people respected or the only image people aspired to. They had their own class of “this is who I am and I can’t do anything contrary to it”. Anything like fall in love with a Slytherin.

‘I don’t understand,’ then Scorpius quickly amended, ‘them. I don’t understand them, either. I don’t understand how anyone could try to keep soulmates apart.’ After a lengthy pause, he added, ‘You’re right. It really isn’t anyone’s business except ours. Especially, if their only goal is to break us apart. But don’t keep things like this from me. Even if you think I won’t like it, tell me right away. I wouldn’t have told Rose we were soulmates had I known it would lead to … all of this.’

The “this” being that Albus and Scorpius were no longer allowed to see each other.

Honestly, they’d never technically been allowed to see each other in the first place. 

Albus had been smart enough to not even ask. He was going to a friend’s house and used the Floo, but his parents trusted his judgement enough to not ask too many questions. They knew they roomed together at Hogwarts. They knew they were “friends” and made it clear how much they disliked it. But, they didn’t really know they were close. Plus, with all the drama in his siblings lives, they were happy to have one easy child that didn’t come to them for everything. 

He was a smart kid. Draco hadn’t known what to think of him when he first met him. This exchange was the most Draco had ever learned about him. Everything up until this point was polite hellos and see you laters.

‘What are we going to do?’ Scorpius asked.

Albus shrugged. ‘Nothing.’

‘Nothing!’ Scorpius pushed back from the Floo and Draco thought he might close the connection on Albus all together. ‘How can you suggest we do nothing?’

‘I’m grounded from leaving the house for two months and then we’ll just go back to the way it was before. I’m talking to you right now, aren’t I?’

‘But?’

‘Then when I’m of age, I’ll move out.’

‘How can you act like this isn’t a big deal?’

‘Because it isn’t.’ Albus quickly added, ‘I mean it is, but I figured this out a long time ago. I knew I couldn’t keep it a secret forever. Remember how much I worried about it when we first became friends?’

Scorpius nodded. 

Draco hadn’t known that part.

‘I’m done, is all.’

Draco snorted. He was familiar with the feeling of being done with it all. The boys talked a few more minutes before Albus had to do submit to his grounding. Draco couldn’t help but wonder if Potter was listening in on his son’s conversation, like Draco had been.

‘Are you alright?’ Draco asked.

Though Scorpius was frowning, he nodded. ‘It’ll all work out.’

‘I’m sure it will.’ For them, it would. ‘You never told me that Albus had issues with you two being friends.’ Honestly, Draco should have known Harry and Ginny would take issue with it. He had simply been pleasantly surprised they had no objection.

‘I didn’t want to upset you.’ Scorpius tried to keep his face passive, but Draco could see when his son was embarrassed.

‘You think it would have bothered me more than you?’

‘Don’t get upset—’

‘I’m not upset with _you_.’

Scorpius laughed at that. ‘I know you aren’t, but I don’t like seeing you upset at all.’ With that, Scorpius went up to bed, and Draco went back to his book. He tried to tame the anger. Scorpius would understand it one day, but Draco had no desire to tell him just then. 

A part of him wanted to confront Potter. How could he dare get in their children’s way of happiness? But he knew the answer, so there was no point. To him Albus was just the same as himself. If Potter refused to be with Draco because of who he was the, of course Albus must do the same with Scorpius. Draco wouldn’t track him down and call him out. Although, as Harry Potter’s soulmate he had every right to. He’d let Scorpius handle it. Scorpius was far more passionate about this particular point, and the boys were so close to being of age. It was time for their rebelliousness to come out.

Draco tried not to give Scorpius too much to rebel against. He found plenty to anyway: his hair styles, his clothing choices, and being sorted into Ravenclaw. None of which really bothered Draco as much as he let on. But after the divorce, he’d rather Scorpius focus on his hair, actually. It was better than getting into real trouble.

It’s difficult raising a child when the parents don’t agree on anything. If disheveled blue hair was something he had to deal with, then so be it.

#

‘I suppose you’d lie if I even asked.’

Draco jumped at the sound of Potter’s voice behind him.

‘Asked what?’ Draco asked.

‘If Albus is still going behind our backs to talk to Scorpius.’

He should lie. Tell Potter it’s none of his business. Instead he told the truth. ‘Only to inform Scorpius he is grounded for two months. Since then he has been adhering to it.’

‘We told him he could do that,’ Potter said.

‘How kind of you.’

Even though Draco worked in the emergency ward at St Mungo’s and Potter was admitted there a couple times a month, they never saw each other. Draco would see his name on a file and pass it off to someone else. Potter would transfigure himself to not draw attention before he came in the door. They were both experts at avoiding each other from the moment they found out they were soulmates.

‘We don’t want it to be like this … I never—’ Potter’s words cut off when Draco’s eyes met his. 

‘ _We_? Really?’

Then it happened, again. _The_ reason they had to avoid each other. _The_ reason everyone knew exactly who their soulmate was and couldn’t lie about it. 

At least, to themselves. 

The _reason_ Scorpius could never understand how someone could possibly reject their own soulmate. Without any conscious movement on their part, their lips were pressed together. This time Potter either couldn’t or chose not to fight it. They were kissing, tongues in mouths and it had been such an awful, long time since that happened. Yay for private rooms. 

Five minutes in and the kiss lost its intensity, but Potter didn’t stop, and Draco never was the first to pull back. This was the only stubbornness he showed in their fight. He _would_ never be the first to pull back. 

Potter tried that once at Hogwarts. After two hours, he pushed Draco away and said, ‘Can’t you stop?’

‘I can,’ Draco said, ‘but I choose not to.’

Even though they were in Draco’s department at work and he would be the one in trouble if anyone came in, Draco held his ground and made Potter be the one to walk away. He won again and was the one who stopped to catch his breath. After a moment, he kept his eyes closed and kissed Draco once more before stepping back completely.

‘No eye contact, Potter.’

‘You looked first.’

‘I never haven’t looked.’

They were quiet as Potter gathered his thoughts. ‘We—’

‘As in Ginny,’ Draco clarified. ‘Not you and I.’

‘Right.’

‘You don’t want it to be like this.’ Draco snorted. ‘What happened to her soulmate, Potter? Or is she like my wife and just hadn’t met him yet?’

They both knew she was his ex-wife, but Draco chose to drop that part around Potter. It was, after all, Potter’s fault she was ever his wife in the first place. But, then, as he had always told Scorpius, it’s more complicated than that. They were meant to be together at those moments in their lives. She never would have met her soulmate without Draco in her life first. They never would have had Scorpius. 

That was the reason that soulmates were personal secrets. Sometimes you didn’t get to be with them. That was no one’s business. Everyone assumed if you married it was to your soulmate, even though they also knew that was not always true. It was rude to suggest otherwise. 

With Astoria and Draco’s marriage, it was constantly suggested otherwise. No one cared, or more likely, everyone cared to insult the Malfoys as much as possible. Of course, Draco’s soulmate had to have rejected him. 

It’s what he deserved.

Harry, as always, received the opposite treatment.

Both digs ate at his parents. He completely understood Scorpius not wanting to bring him any more pain on that front. As much as Draco tried to shield him from it, there was no way once he got to school. The few years before Hogwarts, during the worst parts of the divorce, Draco changed tracks and slowly prepared Scorpius for the hatred he was about to face.

Scorpius dealt with it well. It was the one decision he and Astoria agreed upon. Their parents prepared them too early, they made them look down on people instead of teaching them how to not take what others thought personally.

To the world, Harry and Ginny were clearly soulmates, and they were adored. Draco and Astoria weren’t, and the world adored that too. 

But then, Albus and Scorpius were soulmates, and whether anyone ever found out about Harry and Draco, this would be just as scandalous. 

Harry was still married to Ginny, so they couldn’t keep kissing in random hidden rooms every time they ran into each other. Harry shook his head and then disappeared. They’d been so strong for years. Or rather so distracted by their busy lives, but Scorpius was changing that. Scorpius and Albus couldn’t just fall in love with each other and break all the rules together, like Draco knew they were going to do, and have it not bring up issues with Harry.

Draco tried to not get too excited that they were on their paths to finally being together. After so long. He gave up on the idea forever ago. But there it was again: hope. 

They would be together in the end. They just had to get through this difficult patch and get there. Draco couldn’t control Harry, he couldn’t force him to get on with his own divorce. Even if they started today, it could take years, so Draco had to fix his walls again. He had to put himself together and not think too much on a future he was sure would be his today. To not get too bitter that it will take another five to ten years to get where they should have been two decades ago.

Back to work. 

Focus.

#

When Draco came home, he heard talking coming from Scorpius’ room. He paused outside the door, but they were too distracted for Scorpius to hear the creaking in the floor. So Draco knocked on the door as he opened it, and then stood in the doorway with his arms crossed.

‘Do they know you’re here?’ Draco asked, even though he knew damn well Harry wouldn’t have let Albus come over after seeing Draco that day. 

‘Yes,’ Albus answered with a look on his face that Draco couldn’t read. Not anger or fear nor really confusion or defiance. Perhaps determination or interest.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Father?’ Scorpius questioned.

Draco couldn’t breathe. No, Harry couldn’t have. He wouldn’t have. But—maybe he did. Albus was his son. If Draco wasn’t so confident in Scorpius’ ability to make this decision for himself, he’d give Scorpius advice as well. That Draco had been in Scorpius’ position before was no question.

‘I don’t know if I should say—’ Albus started and then stopped, tried to start again as they waited. Draco was far more than just intrigued then. ‘Dad came home a mess and called me into his office.’

‘He told you?’

Scorpius jumped in, ‘Told him what?’

When Albus didn’t answer, Draco brushed Scorpius’ comment away and said, ‘Continue. Is everything alright?’

‘We didn’t get to talk before mum came in and they were fighting. Dad told me—’ Albus looked at Scorpius. ‘He _told_ me to come here. I wasn’t going to. Mum was yelling about how I don’t actually know that Scorpius is my soulmate, we have to go to a soulmaker to check for sure, and he sent a spell at me. Told me to go to my soulmate and I appeared here.’

‘Next to Scorpius, of course,’ Draco said. ‘It’s a spell a soulmaker will use with “particularly frustrating soulmates”.’

Scorpius laughed and hugged Albus. ‘Where you a “particularly frustrating soulmate”, father?’

‘We were the worst according to her.’

‘You know who your soulmate is?’ Albus asked.

Draco nodded.

Albus turned in Scorpius arms to look at him. ‘You said your parents just hadn’t met them yet.’

‘His mother hadn’t, but she has now,’ Draco explained. ‘I’ve known about mine since I was fifteen, and I think he figured it out at around twenty.’

Draco sighed as he remembered. Harry was certain that Draco had cursed him with the whole suddenly kissing Draco out of nowhere bit. He tried to explain it to him, and eventually just dragged him to a soulmaker to have it explained to him. She was a young, bubbly witch. But even her patience wore thin with Draco and Harry. Draco was still young enough he thought there was a way out of it.

‘I demanded the soulmaker to undo it.’

‘Can you do that?’ Scorpius asked.

‘No,’ Draco said, shaking his head at the memory of the shocked look on their soulmaker’s face. ‘I figured it was magic that created it, so if you can create it then you can undo it. It’s not as though soulmakers go around saying “oh, these two people would look cute together; now you’re soulmates”. They just help soulmates navigate their relationships with each other.’

‘See, first you have the magic, then you have the people who try to control it. Soulmates are simply a magical thing that exists, like unicorns or fairies. When people discovered there was something different about some relationships, they tried to learn all they could about them. Soulmakers used to be just scholars that studied what made witches and wizards themselves. It turned into what drew them together, and the discovery of soulmates.

‘After they learned to use magic to test two people in the same room, some people became too impatient. Spells were created to help people find their soulmates, even if they’d never met them. But everyone still has free will. Your mother didn’t want it to be forced. She didn’t want to know he was her soulmate _before_ she met him. She didn’t even want to know _after_.’

‘They never went to a soulmaker,’ Scorpius explained to Albus.

‘We just know that they are; they know that they are. Your mother’s soulmate didn’t want to know before hand either. He also wanted to met his partner when the time was right. Not just because magic told him to. It’s why it took so long for them to meet, but they trusted the magic inside themselves. They trust each other and the feelings they have for each other.

‘Like the two of you: we know you’ve never been tested. You never needed to be. We never would have asked you to.’

‘My parents did,’ Albus said. ‘I refused.’

‘Why?’ Scorpius asked.

‘It’s none of their business.’

‘Would they have let you see me if they knew we were soulmates?’

Albus reddened as Scorpius stepped away from him crossing his arms.

‘It’s a personal matter,’ Draco said, defending Albus. ‘They shouldn’t have to know to allow you to see each other.’

‘Mum would have.’

Draco was surprised to hear that. He thought it would be the other way around.

‘After the James and Teddy fight, they agreed they’d never try to keep soulmates apart again, but they want proof. They made James and Teddy go to a soulmaker or they had to break up.’

‘We would have passed.’ Scorpius was pouting, but Draco didn’t chastise him for it.

‘I don’t need the world’s permission to love you, Scorpius.’ Albus ran his hand through his hair in a gesture that reminded Draco too much of Harry. ‘They’ll all assume it anyway. The only reason I could possibly be with you is because I have no choice, right? Because magic is making me? I didn’t want them to know, I didn’t want nor need the “proof”.’

Albus was angry, so Draco continued before he went to far and said something he regretted, ‘He’s right. You don’t need the world to know for you to know. That is what your mother wanted. You will have met anyway, when the time was right. There’s no need to rush it, or use magic to force it. People do it and regret it. They’ll never know when they would have met, how much better it would have been to discover it on their own. 

‘And just because soulmates exist, it doesn’t mean you have no choice. No one is out there cursing people with soulmates. No one is forcing anyone to love anyone. Obviously, if there was a person pairing people up, they’d have to be pretty cruel to put people like me and Harry together. 

‘Or evil. I can see someone having a vendetta against me, but The Chosen One? 

‘Still that’s simply not how it works. It’s magic. Like most magic, we don’t know how it works; it just does. Many people have issues with their soulmate. Harry was certain it was a prank or curse; I wanted it gone completely, knowing it was no use. 

‘She used that spell on _him_ multiple times, once while we were both standing in the middle of her living room, and then he kept popping up in the most random places. I went back to her once just to see if there was a way to make _that_ stop, and she informed me that every time he came to her she sent the spell at him as soon as he walked through the door.

‘Then the dunderhead learned the spell and sent it at me once.’ 

‘Father?’

Draco felt the blood drain from his face as they stared wide-eyed at him. Harry had not told Albus, of course, he’d just sent him to his own soulmate.

Turning away from the boys so he could compose himself, Draco said, ‘We should be expecting them here soon then, eh?’

Instead of an answer, Draco felt a pull and a moment later he was standing in front of a very disheveled Harry Potter. After taking in the room—paper and books thrown about it, a glass of whiskey on the desk, Harry with his head in his hands slowly looking up to see Draco standing there—he asked, ‘Where’s Ginny?’

‘Looking for Albus.’

Draco glared then. ‘Where?’

‘She went to Ron and Hermione’s first.’

‘Hoping Albus would be in love with his cousin?’

Harry was not in the mood for jokes. There was not even a hint of a smile just a defeated look as he stared at Draco. ‘He’s at yours then?’

‘Yes,’ Draco said. ‘I’m not sure how long he’s been there. We’ve been talking for a few. They used the soulmate finder spell on me, so here I am.’ 

‘I’m surprised you came.’

‘You don’t understand.’

The boys burst into the room. They must have used the Floo as soon as Draco disappeared.

‘You’re here,’ Albus said his eyes still wide. Scorpius looked more hurt than anything.

‘I’m impressed you learned the spell that quickly,’ Draco said to Albus.

‘I did it,’ Scorpius answered.

Draco wasn’t as surprised that Scorpius learned the spell, but Albus shot an irritated look at Scorpius for it.

‘You two should have stayed at the manor,’ Draco tried to lighten the mood, or at least get everyone to stop staring at him in shock like he held all the answers to the situation. ‘Now no one will be there to greet Ginny, once she finally gives up and goes right where she knew you’d be.’

Harry finally spoke, ‘Don’t be prick, Malfoy.’ Harry stood and made his way back to his drink, taking a sip and then sitting in his chair. ‘Ron and Hermione are probably calming her down. And for your information, she went to ask Rose where she thought Albus might have gone. She thought he Apparated. 

‘Your house is still on that list, but since _we_ clearly never went to a soulmaker, she doesn’t know that’s an actual spell, or what it does. So kindly calm down with the insults.’

While Harry was talking, the boys made their way to the couch. ‘What are we going to do?’ Albus asked.

‘You two are sorted,’ Harry said, and dismissed them with a wave of his hand that showed a little too well how drunk he was. ‘I’ll deal with your mum when she gets back. She wanted proof—there’s your proof. And whether you see it this way or not, Albus, try to: there will be no soulmarker leaking a story about it to the papers. It’s not what you wanted and you can hate me for it if you want to—’

‘I don’t hate you.’ Albus stood and pulled on Scorpius’ arm to join him. ‘But I’m starting to pity you.’

With that, they left.

‘Our sons do have a flair for the dramatic exits. Just stab me in the heart and walk out of the room. Scorpius does it to me all the time.’

Harry tried to stand, but Draco rounds his desk and leans against it in front of him.

‘What are we going to do?’ Draco asked.

‘Ginny left me the year after Astoria left you.’

‘What?’

‘We agreed to keep it out of the papers for the kids and it’s just not working—’

‘You’ve just been alone _this whole time_?’

‘So have you.’

‘That’s my point!’

Suddenly, Albus’ complaints about image being so important to his parents made more sense. The whole family lived a lie for the papers. It explained everything, except, ‘Why did your family not want James with Teddy?’

Harry snorted. ‘The public loves Victorie.’

‘So you just live your lives by what the public wants?’

‘No, we live our lives how we want to, but we keep it out of the public. Which, yes, means we have to live in the same house. We have to not move on.’

‘Has Ginevera met her soulmate?’

‘She’s always known who her soulmate was.’

Draco waited for the answer.

‘It’s none of our business,’ Harry said. ‘I assume she sees her soulmate or they’re dead. You know, she did this for me and the kids.’

‘There wouldn’t have been any—’

‘She wanted kids.’

‘Right.’

‘I wanted kids.’

Draco started cleaning up the room around him and Harry looked through his desk. Everyone wanted kids. There were many ways to have them. They could have had their own, but he remembered what he told Scorpius when he was eight. Life was not that simple. They were meant for each other at that point in their lives, even if they weren’t meant forever.

Once Harry found the potion he was looking for he laughed and drank it. 

‘First I wanted to be drunk so I didn’t feel anything, and now I need to be sober so that I can think. Thank you, magic.’ 

‘So, we’re both single, have been for years, and you still don’t want me. That’s it then, isn’t it?’

Harry shook his head and Draco waited. If it was true, if this was the end, he needed to hear the words from Harry’s mouth. He needed to hear it. Even knowing he still didn’t want him.

‘I wanted us to meet again.’

‘What does that mean?’ How could they meet again. They’d already met. They already knew.

‘I just wanted—I guess to start again, but in a normal way. Not see each other and fight. Run into each other in a shop and talk about … coffee or I don’t know. I didn’t have a plan. Just a hope. That one day at a Quidditch match we’d bump into each other and flirt instead of fight.’

‘Idealistic.’

‘It shouldn’t have been that hard.’

Draco let their eyes meet. ‘How are you not kissing me?’

‘Pushing you against a wall isn’t starting over again.’ 

‘How about this: let's go on a date.’

‘You’re asking me out?’

‘That’s how most people start,’ Draco said. ‘It doesn’t have to be public.’

Harry nodded. ‘I think I’d like that.’

‘Tomorrow? Dinner?’

‘It’s a Thursday?’

‘And?’

‘I’d love to.’


End file.
